Valerie Salez: Noah of the North

October 2, 2008

By Mike Landry

Valerie Salez let's the rabbit out of the hat in "Congregation."

In the midst of a morphine induced stupor Dawson City-based artist Valerie Salez asked her boyfriend to write down three sentences—“The cat’s outta the bag; the dog’s outta the box; and the rabbit’s outta the hat.”

The cryptic statements described her visions of animals streaming forward, from smallest to biggest, through a vast white expanse. Salez was given the morphine after she had an appendix attack during an artist residency in Southern Yukon. Although she had to have her appendix removed the experience inspired her latest exhibition, Congregation.

“After the morphine and vision it was during recovery back at the residency that I just began to sit and cut every cat, rabbit and dog from every book I had. I did this for weeks and it felt completely liberating and right.”